What do Taylor Swift, Anderson Cooper, Elon Musk, Kelly Clarkson, and the entire Shark Tank panel have in common? Scammers have stolen their images to promote fraudulent schemes. G2RS’ investigators have identified a variety of tools that bad actors use to pass off these fictitious celebrity endorsements as the real deal. Scammers scoop up unsuspecting customers with ads on YouTube and Facebook, then use bits of trickery—including subtle redirects, photoshop, and deepfakes—to give their bogus products unearned credibility.
For example, certain Facebook ads forward to this fake news article, meant to convince you that Shark Tank endorsed a CBD product.
The article makes some extraordinary claims about the products’ medical benefits, including that they delay the onset of dementia. The Shark Tank panel and a few contestants are plastered all over the page, and every link redirects to a CBD merchant. However, according to Snopes, the Shark Tank cast has never invested in any CBD product.
Similarly, scammers designed this page to look exactly like a Facebook post—with details like 20+ notifications and a fabricated comment section. It features Kelly Clarkson selling a topical ointment that claims to reduce hunger pangs.
Here’s another fake Facebook post with a bad photoshop of TV presenter Alison Hammond:
Photoshop is an old trick, but scammers have become adept at using the latest AI technology. We’ve seen advertisements that use deepfake video and audio to hawk pills and sell get-rich-quick schemes. Watch the ad and listen to the uncannily forged voices of Anderson Cooper and Elon Musk. The ad may be purposefully grainy to obscure their deepfake lips as well.
The rise of fraudulent ads featuring fake celebrity endorsements is a growing concern. In 2024, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority received over 1,600 reports of potential scams, most involving deepfakes of public figures. This trend is part of a larger pattern where fraudsters create complex ecosystems, using real merchant accounts, disguised payment flows, and hidden networks. Tackling this problem requires more than surface-level solutions—it demands a deeper investigative approach.
Scammers often use transaction laundering to funnel money through seemingly legitimate front websites. Merchants who unknowingly benefit from these scams risk hefty fines from acquiring banks. Automated systems alone can’t detect these complex networks. G2RS offers a more thorough solution with Transaction Laundering Detection: We trace scam origins, follow the money, and uncover hidden networks that others may miss.
To learn more about our merchant risks solutions, get in touch.